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Dining alone, cooking for one, eating over the sink...

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Eating alone: tell the truth about what you choose...

I'm an empty nester, divorced, living alone - well, with a donkey, a miniature horse and ten chickens, but they don't come inside and they're no help at dinner time. When I was fresh out of college I lived in a group house and we had big fancy meals - one of us cooked every night and there was some peer pressure to do a good job. You knew if you put out a good effort there would be a lot of hungry young people smacking their lips and thanking you for being such a good Earth Mother.

When I was married and there were kids in the house, we put dinner on the table every day, and we sat down together and ate it and talked to each other.

Now things are different and I find that far too often my meals - if you could call them that - are a little embarrassing. So on this page I'm going to 'fess up to my bad habits, explore what other people eat when they eat alone, and see what sort of healthy eating choices a single person can make. I hope you'll contribute some ideas in the guestbook below!

I'm making this lens to see if it will help me eat better in the future. This page is the "before." There's a link to the "after" lens below. I hope you can help me out with some suggestions below, because it's not easy to change your ways!

Photo above is a portion of a picture by Baerbel Kavanaugh, used by permission. The entire image can be seen further down the page.

My most common food choices

A middle-aged divorced woman tells all.

  • Corn flakes, bananas, and skim milk;
  • A spoonful of chunky peanut butter;
  • Two fried eggs (from my own chickens) with an English muffin;
  • mozarella cheese melted onto a corn tortilla.

I sat here quite a while and couldn't really think of anything else I eat often.

My favorite aunt, when she lived alone, used to go on what she called "jags." She would eat just steaks and ketchup (she got carotenia from that jag), or just Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream, or just yogurt, for a few days or weeks. Once, it was Prune Cool Whip.

I don't do that, but I do sometimes erratically eat some vegetables or fruit. I'm very enthused with Honey Crisp apples right now, and a few nights ago I ate a pound of brussel sprouts, steamed in the microwave, with some parmesan cheese on top. A few days before that I ate a pound of yellow squash, prepared (if you could call it that) the same way.

How to get more vegetables into your solitary dining experience

When you are too demoralized to peel a carrot...

Ramen and broccoli

Microwave a 10-ounce box of frozen broccoli until it's no longer frozen solid.
Boil a cup of water. Throw in the broccoli.
When it's boiling again, add HALF the ramen noodles and the little packet of salt, artificial flavorings, and msg that comes with the noodles.

OK, you've eaten a ton of salt, but at least you ate a box of broccoli. Now you can have some cornflakes and bananas.

Eat it all.

Bachelor meals

This is a post from my blog called "Pratie Place"

I have a cookbook called "Cooking for One." It's full of elegantly set tables and beautifully arranged plates of fancy foods. The message is, even if you're alone, you should be eating well. Does anybody ever do this? I think I'm doing pretty well if I actually sit down with actual food on an actual plate instead of walking around stuffing random tidbits into my mouth.

To see if people had better ideas, I googled "bachelor meals" and found other solitary eaters are doing just as badly as I am. Here are some of their picks:
  • ketchup sandwiches
  • cold spaghetti sauce on bread
  • nuked ketchup and water
  • hot dog rolls w/mustard and relish - no dogs left
  • dry cereal in a bowl - forgot I ran out of milk
  • pasta w/Cheese Whiz topping
  • Cheez-Its with milk as cereal
  • Frosted Flakes for breakfast
  • dill pickle spears dipped in Miracle Whip
  • bread dipped in salad dressing poured on a plate
  • bread sticks dipped in Marsh. Fluff and choc. syrup
  • Uncooked macaroni topped with mayonaise and barbecue sauce (when the power was turned off)
  • hamburg patty w/stale pizza wrapped around it
  • Take a can of pork-and-bean and poured it into a plate until the plate is brim full. In the center of that, empty a can of sardines. On top of the sardines, heap a few tablespoons of Miracle Whip salad dressing.
  • scrambled eggs, with hot dogs chopped up in them.
  • can of sour cream & onion Pringles and a six-pack
  • Best Bachelor Meal Ever: edamame (soy beans in pod)in water
  • peanut butter and Miracle Whip on white bread.
  • Peanut butter, blackberry jelly, Oscar Meyer bologna, and American cheese on toasted white bread

Ideas for eating alone from the commenters at my blog "Pratie Place"

Many people are sitting at the Table for One...

  • Kenju said... I love eating eggs for dinner. When I am alone, I scramble eggs and have them with 2 Eggo waffles. Yum!

    There are some things on your list that are revolting: pork and beans, sardines and Miracle Whip? I would die before I could eat that.
  • Lora said... Yuck, many of those are just plain revolting.

    In the whole year that I lived by myself, the week night a week I wasn't working I made an effort to cook myself a real well-balanced dinner. I'd even light some candles. But not anymore.

    I eat a lot of plain yogurt with berries, nuts, and granola.
    Eggs in various forms.
    Soup (I always have individual containers of homemade soup and stews in my freezer)
    Salad greens topped with George Foreman Grilled salmon or chicken
  • Badaunt said... Golly, looking at that list makes me feel incredibly healthy, and I thought I was a bad eater.

    But if I'm alone I make an effort to eat SOMETHING healthy. And I always sit down at the table to eat.

    My favourite (and I have it all the time, because it's fast) is spaghetti. I fry slices of garlic and a chilli in lots of olive oil, then add tomato, herbs, mushrooms, and at the end whatever leafy greens happen to be in the fridge get thrown in as well. Eat with lightly toasted bread for dipping in the remainder of the sauce when the spaghetti is gone, and a glass of red wine helps wash it down nicely. Takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

    Other times I go Japanese. Rice, miso, toasted agedofu (a kind of tofu) with grated ginger on top and soy sauce sprinkled over it (yum), and some sort of leafy green blanched then sprinkled with sesame and katsuo. (Dried bonito.) A piece of grilled fish is optional, and so is yakitori chicken. (There's a little place near here that sells it by the stick.)

    I'm not a good cook, which is why all my meals are really simple and almost impossible to get wrong. And quick, because I get bored with preparing and just want to eat.
  • Adam V. said... Pan fried steak, tomato salad (that is, a sliced tomato with bleu cheese dressing), corn on the cob.
  • Craig said... My wife is in Geneva right now, but she hardly ever cooks when she is here, even though she's a great cook. Our housekeeper works two days a week. Today she'll make corned beef and cabbage, enough for today and for leftovers this weekend. Next Monday I'll have her make a deep fried Thai fish with coconut milk curry sauce. She also makes two big green salads every week. So I usually only cook once or twice a week, sometimes a tuna casserole, sometimes steak and baked potato or sausage and fried noodles. I almost always go to the mall for lunch.
  • O'Rupp said... Most often I nuke some frozen vegetables, but when it's cold out and a need for variety strikes, I'll make Trinity Soup: chopped celery, onions, and carrots sauted in olive oil, then flavored with white wine and add water, simmer until hungry.
  • Cheryl said...

    Mayonnaise sandwiches.
    Nothing else, just mayonnaise!
    (guilty secret rofl)
  • phoenix said... When I was growing up it was called hash, but it was always a staple and now when I am alone it is what I crave.

    Hash browns made fresh by grating a potato. Fry the hash browns in a combo of butter and crisco. Add onion and any meat you might have in the fridge, preferably ham diced. Scramble 2 eggs in a bowl and add to the mixture once it is crispy enough. Scramble the whole thing until eggs are cooked. Put on your plate and add american cheese (melts faster).

    Gosh hungry now... gonna go make some :)
  • exiledbear said... Try making a Dutch one-dish meal called "boerenkool stampot" - you mash some potatos and kale/spinach with a little bacon. Not the greatest dish, but quite filling. Have a lowfat turkey sausage to go with it, for an extra treat.

    I usually make stirfry or curry - both are low in fat, and have a good spectrum of vegetables to go along with the meat.

    I used to make pizzas from scratch, but most pizzas aren't all that healthy - at least the ones that you want to eat anyways.
  • PJ said... Slacker Egg Tortilla: Line a bowl with your tortilla. Break open an egg into the tortilla lined bowl. If you do this right, all the egg should nest in the tortilla. Now get a paper plate to cover the bowl, cut some holes in it to let the steam out. Put a coffee mug on top of the plate to keep the plate from blowing off. Put that in the microwave for say 2 minutes, and presto. Add whatever you want to it. Quick, cheap, easy and no mess...
  • Anonymous said... Peanut Butter and Dill Pickle sammich on toasted bread. Sprinkle nutritional yeast on the peanut butter.
  • George Rivello said... I am a brand new bachelor, but I have always enjoyed cooking for myself and cook omlettes in the morning, and weekly meals for the weekends such as bbq chicken, spanish rice, fish soup, shrimp salad, and of course pasta and meatballs. Lately I've been looking for recipes that will last me the whole week, like stir fry or crock pot type meals.

    Ironically I was looking for menus when I found your lamentable collection of loathesome loner meals. Not for me!

    Although, I'll never light the candles dining alone. Thats just too much drama.
  • Anonymous said... pork and beans with brown or white rice is all you need
  • Anonymous said... stouffers skillet sensations over rice or noodles is great and healthy

    Or beans and rice...any beans, any rice, add a beef/chicken bouillon cube when making the rice. it's soooo simple, i'm all about simple.
  • Anonymous said... boiled vegetables (cabbage, broccoli onion) over a nuked baked potato, with margarine, mustard...

    deli 5-layer bean dip burritos

    int'l salads: chinese (add wonton strips, canned mandarins, water chestnuts, chopped green onion

    lean cuisines, cereal, one-serving oatmeal...
  • Anonymous said... Usually I either boil/fry some rice w/frozen veggies, or fry potatoes and meat in about 1/2 in of oil.

    Other than steaming, does anyone know how to make rice "fluffy" like at the restaurants? also, how do you make miso soup?
  • Peter said... Glad I am not the only one with the same problem! I am retired and keep plenty apples, (eat straight or microwave with sugar), bananas, eggs, minute noodles, and packet soups & rice, instant mash, gravy, mayonnaise, bread for toast and toppings of bottled spreads (eg. peanut butter and cereals and instant oats for breakfast. All interspersed with a glass of flavoured milk or coffee/black tea.

"Table for One" by Baerbel Kavanaugh

Used by permission.

How to enjoy eating alone at a restaurant.

Sometimes I am just sick of corn flakes.

Here are my guidelines for going out to eat alone. Your mileage may vary.

  • I tend to go to a place that's familiar. Even when I was eating alone in Paris, I would go to the same place a few times a week so the staff recognized me and smiled. That made it more fun.

  • I always take a book to read or some homework to do. It appeals to my sense of the absurd to do my Yiddish homework at MacDonalds or La Hacienda.

  • I go earlier than the crowd (or at lunch sometimes later). I don't want the waiters to worry that they're wasting a table on one person during the height of the rush. Also, when the restaurant is quieter it's easier to do my homework.

  • Smile at the hostess, smile at the owner, smile at your waiter. It will feel cozier.

What shall I try first?

In honor of publishing this lens, I went to the grocery store and bought a cabbage, a potato, and an onion. We'll see.

Eating better, eating healthy: can I do it? Can you do it?

Go visit my experimental "after" lens

All of a sudden I am really, really sick of eating nothing but corn flakes and shredded wheat isn't going to solve my problem. It's gonna take vegetables. Visit my other eating-for-one lens to see if I can improve my eating habits.
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ChapelHillFiddler

Musician in Chapel Hill with two bands: Mappamundi, a world music - klezmer - swing band, and the Pratie Heads, a Celtic - British Isles - early music... more »

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